Among the most fascinating objects that astronomers today can study are the bizarre, collapsed corpses of massive stars that have come to be called black holes. Around these incredibly dense star-remnants, gravity becomes so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. In the last few decades, new instruments in space have enabled astronomers to detect the presence of black holes for the first time. Being black and very small, these objects are hard to “see” directly, but we can sometimes find them by watching them “eat”. Smaller black holes are found when they are caught having their companion stars for lunch. At the centers of large galaxies, much larger black holes are often seen consuming their “neighborhood”, pulling in large quantities of gas, dust, and larger bodies. In the process, excess “food” is being spit out into vast jets extending in opposite directions, which can signal the presence of the central black hole to great distances.

Many general books and articles on astronomy include brief coverage of black holes these days. The list below is a selection of non-technical resources that you may find useful if you want to begin exploring the world of black holes in more detail.

Greenstein, George Frozen Star. 1984, Freundlich Books. Eloquent introduction to the death of stars in general.

Kaufmann, William Cosmic Frontiers of General Relativity. 1977, Little Brown. For those who want more non-technical details about the different types of black holes; out of print, but well worth searching out.

Melia, Fulvio Cracking the Einstein Code: Relativity and the Birth of Black Hole Physics. 2009, U. of Chicago Press. A history of the study of black holes, and a biography of Roy Kerr, who first solved the equations that describe a rotating black hole.

Thorne, Kip Black Holes and Time Warps. 1994, W. W. Norton. The long, definitive introduction by one of the leading scientists in the field; a bit technical in places.

2. A Few Introductory Readings on the General Theory of Relativity

Wheeler, John A Journey Into Gravity and Spacetime. 1990, Scientific American Library. A brilliant, demanding introduction by one of the foremost scientists of our time (the man who helped coin the word “black hole”.)

Will, C. Was Einstein Right? — Putting General Relativity to the Test. 1986, Basic Books. Introduction to the experiments that confirm the theory.

5. Books and Articles on Super-massive Black Holes in General

Barger, A. “The Midlife Crisis of the Cosmos” in Scientific American, Jan. 2005, p. 46. On how our time differs from the early universe in terms of what galaxies are doing, and what role supermassive black holes play.

Bartusiak, M. “A Beast in the Core” in Astronomy, July 1998, p. 42. Nice discussion of giant black holes being uncovered at the centers of galaxies.

Olson, S. “Black Hole Hunters” in Astronomy, May 1999, p. 48. Profiles of four astronomers who search for “hungry” black holes at the centers of active galaxies.

Rees, M. “Black Holes in Galactic Centers” in Scientific American, Nov. 1990, p. 56. One of the astronomers most involved in explaining how giant black holes can form and power active galaxies explains the key ideas in the field.

6. A Few Readings on the Life and Work of Stephen Hawking

Ferguson, K. Stephen Hawking: Quest for A Theory of Everything: The Story of His Life and His Work. 1991, Bantam. Biographical, but with some science.

Ferguson, K. “Devouring the Future” in Astronomy, Dec. 1998, p. 64. Quick intro to his life and work, with an update on what he is doing recently.

Folger, Tim “Return of the Invisible Man: Stephen Hawking” in Discover, Jul/Aug. 2009, p. 42. Summary of his life and work, plus his recent thinking.

Hawking, S. A Brief History of Time. 1988, Bantam. Some parts of this best-seller are a bit more difficult than its sales might make you believe. (The book now exists in several versions — some annotated — and has spin-off readers’ guides, videos, etc.) Also see his Black Holes and Baby Universes (1993, Bantam) for further thoughts and elaborations.

Spacetime Wrinkles Website:http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/NumRelHome.html
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications Relativity Group (whew — what a name!) has set up an intriguing and well produced “exhibit on line” about Einstein’s theory of relativity and its astronomical implications, including some movies in which they simulate situations such as the collision of two black holes.

Black Hole Animations: Using high-speed computers, several groups of physicists have simulated the behavior of black holes and what it might be like to fall into one. Among the sites with web-movies from such simulations are:

Baxter, Stephen “Pilot” in Vacuum Diagrams. 1997, Harper Prism. An asteroid space ship being chased by an enemy missile goes through the ergosphere of a rotating black hole, taking energy out and making the chasing missile fall in the event horizon.

Haldeman, Joe The Forever War. 1974, Ballantine. An interstellar war is fought using black holes for travel between battles.

Johnson, Bill “Meet Me at Apogee” in Carr, T., ed. The Best Science Fiction of the Year 12. 1983, Pocket Books. Posits a future in which people (with alien help) organize levels of descent near a black hole; so the two-month level is where one day of experienced time for the traveler equals two months in the outside universe. Prospectors and people with incurable disease hire pilots to take them down to lower levels.

Landis, Geoffrey “Impact Parameter” in Impact Parameter. 2001, Golden Gryphon. A newly discovered gravitational lens turns out to be a wormhole being used by an alien civilization to visit us.

Landis, Geoffrey “Approaching Perimelasma” in Impact Parameter. 2001, Golden Gryphon. In the far future, a virtual human is dropped into a black hole and makes an interesting discovery about space and time.

McAuley, Paul “How We Lost the Moon” in Crowther, Peter, ed. Moon Shots. 1999, Daw. A glitch in a fusion experiment on the Moon creates a mini black hole that eats our satellite.

McDevitt, Jack & Shara, Michael “Lighthouse” in Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt. (2009, Subterranean Press) [also on the web at: http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1596061958/1596061958___8.htm ] An alien race decides, as a public service, to mark the location of unaccompanied black holes in the Galaxy by putting very strange brown dwarfs around them that could not exist in nature. Shara is an astronomer.

Niven, Larry World Out of Time. 1976, Ballantine. Protagonist uses a supermassive black hole to travel into distant future.

Niven, Larry “The Hole Man” in A Hole in Space. 1974, Ballantine. How to commit murder using a mini-black hole.

Niven, Larry “The Borderland of Sol” in Tales of Known Space. 1975, Ballantine. Space pirates use a mini-black hole.

Sagan, Carl Contact. 1985, Simon & Schuster. The protagonists use a kind of black hole-wormhole “subway” system for interstellar travel. The system was designed by astrophysicist Kip Thorne and his students and later shown to be scientifically plausible.

Sheffield, Charles “Killing Vector” in Vectors. 1979, Ace. Mini-black holes are used for space propulsion. Sheffield has a PhD in physics.

Varley, John The Ophiuchi Hotline. 1977, Dell. Complex novel, in which mini black holes are hunted as energy sources.

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